Kitz Forum
Computers & Hardware => Hardware - Deals & Bargains => Topic started by: UncleUB on August 20, 2008, 09:07:00 AM
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Just seen this Casio 10 mega pixel camera from Asda for £67 (In store only)
http://www.digicamreview.com/2008/08/casio-exilim-ex-z1050-only-67-at-asda.html
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Looking at the reviews, it seems to be a nice little camera and a good choice as a point and shooter.
My only gripe would be the lack of a viewfinder.
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Phil,
I moved it to Deals & Bargains as it was a special offer. Thanks for the heads up on it.
dave
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No problem Dave :)
@TD,yes that is my only gripe with my Panasonic,its a nightmare to see the screen in bright sunlight.I'm saving up for one of these.
http://www.warehouseexpress.com/product/default.aspx?sku=1023148
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A much better choice, unkyUb and a very nice little camera it is too.
More expensive, but much more satisfying.
Not so many pixels as the other wee job, but 8mps is more than enough for printing up to A4. Also, more pixels on the same size sensor does not always equate to quality, and 8mps on that size of sensor is enough..........more that that and you can get noise and artifacts
Good price too, a few quid off the rrp. Put Blue on a diet, cut down on the sausages..........you'll have the dosh in no time.
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A much better choice, unkyUb and a very nice little camera it is too.
More expensive, but much more satisfying.
Not so many pixels as the other wee job, but 8mps is more than enough for printing up to A4. Also, more pixels on the same size sensor does not always equate to quality, and 8mps on that size of sensor is enough..........more that that and you can get noise and artifacts
Good price too, a few quid off the rrp. Put Blue on a diet, cut down on the sausages..........you'll have the dosh in no time.
:o
I like taking landscape photo's whilst on holiday.My Panasonic is 6mp but only 3 x optical zoom.I can't get shots near enough ,the digital zoom always leaves the shots a little blurred.I'm waiting for the price to drop some more as Panasonic has just brought out a replacement for the FZ18
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Digital zoom is something best left in the box.
With an optical zoom, you get a section of the view enlarged as through a magnifying glass and that enlarged area is written by the sensor in it's entirety and using all the pixels available on the sensor.
A digital zoom, on the other hand, enlarges the portion of the view by discarding pixels around the periphery of the sensor and then expanding the middle pixels by interpolation to fill the sensor frame. And of course, interpolation is guesswork on the part of the camera as to what was really there.
That will give you the blur, pixellation, noise and distortion that you see from your current camera.
A longer optical zoom is much better, just needs a steady hand.
The DMC-FZ18 has an 18x optical zoom giving an SLR equivalent of 35mm-504mm (great landscapes to birds all in one )...............it also has a digital zoom, but with that optical length you won't need it.
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Thanks for the masterclass TD,much appreciated :)
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A cheaper option with a good optical zoom range (and a proper viewfinder of course) is this one. (http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?page=Product&sku=388716&camp_id=ppc_model_numbers_google&source_id=esearchvision) I've got one, and we're very happy together.
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I looked at that Eric,but it doesn't have O.I.S (Optical Image Stabilisation)does it?.My Panasonic has it and I find it very good.
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I'm not sure exactly what OIS is, but the Fuji has what it calls 'picture stabilisation mode' which selects a high shutter speed to reduce picture shake. As I don't (yet) suffer from the wobbles I haven't tried it out. :)
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The difference being that in the Panasonic, the sensor wobbles in parallel with the hand wobble and keeps the light rays sharply focused on one plane.
The Fuji ramps up the shutter speed, but of course to keep a proper exposure it must open up the diaphragm to compensate. Opening the diaphragm results in a shallower depth of field which means that the foreground and background sharpness tails off very quickly...............great if you want to isolate your subject against a blurry background but not so good if you have a landscape that you want pin sharp from the horizon to your toe caps.
Sorry if all this is teaching my granny to suck eggs.
Don't know if either of these two cameras has a tripod mount ?
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The Panasonic does, and it is something I am considering buying as I am led to believe it is a must for night time photography?
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The old rule of thumb, and it applies to digicams as well as filmcams, is that you (anyone) can only hold the camera steady enough for a sharp shot if the exposure time in seconds does not exceed the focal length in mm.
So, for a 50mm lens, holding with a speed any longer than 1/50th of a second will probably result in blur to a greater or lesser degree.
On the Panasonic, at full zoom of 500mm, applying the above you need to be using a speed faster than 1/500th of a sec to avoid blur (the IS will mitigate that blur to an extent, but not entirely as it is designed to compensate for shakey hands in "normal" situations, not for playing around with with extremes of speed.)
If you are doing night time pics., you may well be talking of exposure times of several seconds and no way will you or I hold a camera steady for that length of time and in that event the IS will not operate with any efficiency.
Further, a lot of people are tempted to crank up the ISO rating for night shots, but in a digicam long exposure combined with high ISO will give lots of "noise"........ugly. The thing to do is to keep the ISO at it's lowest and extend the exposure time.
So, yes for that a tripod is really a must.
Rule of thumb for tripods.............they must be at least as heavy as if not heavier than your camera, have good solid legs without too many joints but at the same time must be light enough to carry around or you will be tempted to leave it at home. They should reach to about eye height without you having to break your back to see through the camera.
Once on the tripod, a good tip is to fire the camera via the self timer..............press the button and then hands off.........the three/twelve or whatever seconds delay lets the vibration from the press die down before the shutter fires.
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Yes, the Fuji has a tripod mount.
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Thanks for the info TD,very useful :)
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You've got me started now, unkyUb..............I could rabbit on for hours about photography if someone is silly enough to give me the chance. :D
Most of my spoutings are sheer bunkum, but there is the odd bit of sense in there, if only I could find it :-\
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No, you haven't been guilty of bunkum yet TD. I used to be a keen amateur photographer, and your information was spot-on.
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So, yes for that a tripod is really a must.
Rule of thumb for tripods.............they must be at least as heavy as if not heavier than your camera, have good solid legs without too many joints but at the same time must be light enough to carry around or you will be tempted to leave it at home. They should reach to about eye height without you having to break your back to see through the camera.
Once on the tripod, a good tip is to fire the camera via the self timer..............press the button and then hands off.........the three/twelve or whatever seconds delay lets the vibration from the press die down before the shutter fires.
Can you recommend me a tripod without breaking the bank.That Panasonic Lumix FZ18 is 360grams. I am quite tall(6.2")so I will need one to extend without having to bend too much.Any help in the right direction would be appreciated. :)
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Bit out of my territory this, but I just got my Argos Newsletter (how sad am I) and this is on offer.
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5590584/Trail/searchtext%3ENIKON.htm
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Aaaahhh, tripods..............there are a million and ten to choose from ranging from thirty quid to about fifteen hundred quid. I guess you don't want the expensive job and most of the cheapos are really not up to the job.
You are tall and to get one stretching to your height and remaining stable means the expensive end, so a bit of a compromise is needed, and I reckon that you will be looking at about £80.00 for something like this http://www.parkcameras.com/ProductDetails/mcs/productID/9257/groupID/16/categoryID/81/v/4b3de284-d3bf-4e81-94a7-3c29c28b80ec
It would entail a bit of stooping, but it is stong and robust, lightweight enough and a decent compromise.
If that is too much to pay, and of course you need to factor in just how often you think you would use it, then the cheaper end models from Jessops and/or Velbon may suit your needs.
Remember, of course, that when you see how your pics will improve when the camera is tripod mounted, you may very well get into the habit of using for all your work.
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Unc.. I have the Lumix DMC-FZ8 with x12 Optical zoom ... I've had it a while now, superb results, easy to use, battery last a looooooong time (but I bought a spare) fairly lightweight .... I like the view finder option; one thing I have added is a screen protector. I'm sure you'll get on with the one you've featured here.
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I'm back........sorry. ;D
UnkyUb, one thing to be aware of when thinking about that Panasonic.
That x19 zoom is a hefty bit of zooming power. All zoom lenses are a compromise between versatility and quality (quality in terms of a fixed focal length lens) and it may be an idea if it possible to try the thing before parting with money.
Long zooms can, when used at their extreme ends,can cause lens flare (when the light bounces around inside the lens and shows as a burned out, coloured round blob on the image) and are also prone to distortion...........barrel where the items at the edges of the frame bow outwards, or pincushion where they bow inwards.
The lens on the Panasonic is a Leica lens which will be of good quality and I am sure that they have done their best to minimise these aberrations, but the above problems will be evident and it would be worth assessing just how much there is and whether you can live with it.
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I wonder if the photo experts would cast their eyes over this and give my their opinions.
http://www.warehouseexpress.com/product/default.aspx?sku=1022835
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That is a very nice camera.
Good points are :-
Uses AA batteries............readily available, and you can use rechargeables ( don't know how long they will last)
Good range of ISO rating, with a low of 64ISO............lovely, noise free.
Close up, macro facility of 2 cms, not bad for a zoom and great for flowers etc.
Image stabilisation is the proper type, where the censor wobbles in tune with the hand wobble.
Fujinon lens................lovely ( again, though, expect a bit of distortion........it is a zoom after all )
Takes xd cards, anywhere from 16mbs to 2gbs ( an lot of 8 mpx jpegs on a 2 gb card)
Good rangefinder style through the lens viewfinder.
Good big rear screen with histogram for quick check on your exposures.
Although there are built in shooting "modes", there is manual override of everything available.
Although the zoom is slightly shorter than the Panasonic, it starts slightly wider, 27mm as opposed to 35mm which is nice for landscapes, and the long end goes to about 480mm, which is not far off the Panasonic.
Not so good points.
Possible issue with battery life.
Nothing else.
In the good old days of film, if you put a roll of Fuji Velvia into a Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Fuji or whatever camera, and took shots with these different cameras in the same light, same scene etc, you got the same colour rendition on all the snaps..............the colour rendering was done by the film, not by the camera.
It is different with digicams where the colouring rendering engines built into the various marques vary slightly.
Each brand will display colours slightly differently.
Look at a pic from a Nikon and then the same one from a Canon..............both will look superb, but put them side by side and you will spot little differences of tone and colour rendition.
Nikons, and the Panasonic that you were looking at earlier, tend to be a tad "cool" whilst Canon and this Fuji will appear a little "warm".
This is not a problem foe me, as whatever camera I use, I import straight into Photoshop which is set up to convert any and all pics into my preferred colour space automatically, but if you do have have such a program or want to print via PicBridge, it may be worth considering this point.
You would not be disappointed by the images from either of these cameras, but that tiny little difference will be there..............but if you are not going to compare one with the other as closely as I might, it is not really an issue.
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http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/fuji/finepix_s8000fd-review/
There's quite a comprehensive review here Unc, which you might find useful ...
and here's my favourite reviewer ...
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2007_reviews/fuji_s8000fd.html
SORRY TD .... all your hard work makes me look lazy .... ;D
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Good grief, woman, could you not have posted a little bit more quickly and saved me th trouble. :lol:
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:lol:
I couldn't see properly .... for the sun :lol:
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:lol:
I couldn't see properly .... for the sun :lol:
>:( Gggrrrrrrrrrrrrr